GP Belgio, prove sabato–22/08/2015

Lewis Hamilton claimed his 10th pole position in 11 Formula 1 races this year by comfortably defeating Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Rosberg was narrowly faster than team-mate Hamilton in Q2 at Spa, but the reigning world champion reversed the situation by a massive 0.446 seconds after their respective first runs in Q3, then lowered his benchmark time to a 1m47.197s on his second run to secure pole.

In doing so Hamilton became the first driver to score six pole positions in a row in a single season since Mika Hakkinen in 1999 and also clinched the FIA pole trophy for 2015.

Rosberg also improved on his second run, but he dropped almost half a second to his title rival in sector two of the circuit, which runs from Les Combes through the double left-hander at Pouhon to the right-hander at Stavelot, so wound up second best again.

Ferrari would normally be expected to fill row two of the grid, but Sebastian Vettel could only lap ninth fastest in his SF15-T, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen failed to make it into Q3 at all after his car broke down on track with what the team believes was a loss of oil pressure.

Mercedes-powered Williams, Lotus and Force India thus filled the next three places on the timesheet, as Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez all lapped to the same tenth of a second, but well over a second adrift of Hamilton.

The Renault powered Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top six, ahead of the second Williams of Felipe Massa and the second Lotus of Pastor Maldonado.

Carlos Sainz Jr’s Toro Rosso rounded out the top 10, albeit well adrift of the rest of the Q3 runners.

Perez had set a stunning fourth-best time in Q2, but Nico Hulkenberg failed to make the top 10, finishing up over three tenths adrift of his Force India team-mate in 11th.

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton set an impressive pace as he topped the timesheets in final practice for the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The reigning F1 world champion clocked a 1m48.984s to finished 0.498 seconds quicker than his title rival, who was fastest in both practice sessions on Friday.

Ferrari proved to be Mercedes’ closest challenger at a gloriously sunny Spa Francorchamps, with Sebastian Vettel third and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fourth.

Sergio Perez set the fastest final sector as he ended up fifth, two tenths and three places clear of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg to suggest Force India can aim for the final part of qualifying later on Saturday.

The Red Bull drivers and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, who will start towards the back of the grid because of a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change, completed their soft tyre qualifying-simulations early in the session.

That allowed them to spend the rest of the session to gathering long-run data, making up for the red flag disruptions in Friday’s second practice.

Sauber, which has the 2015-spec Ferrari engine for the first time this season, was quick on Friday, but Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson failed to repeat that form, ending practice three 14th and 15th respectively.

Romain Grosjean was 16th quickest, but complained to his team on the radio that he was baulked badly by Raikkonen, who was cruising slowly back to the pits.

Following Rosberg’s rear tyre failure at high speed in second practice, which Pirelli determined not to be a structural integrity issue, final practice passed without further incident.